چون یحبون بخواندی در نبی ** با یحبوهم قرین در مطلبی
Since you have read in the Qur’án (the words) “they love Him” joined in a certain place with (the words) “He loves them,”
پس محبت وصف حق دان عشق نیز ** خوف نبود وصف یزدان ای عزیز
Know, then, that love (mahabbat), and excessive love (‘ishq) too, is an attribute of God: fear is not an attribute of God, O honoured sir.
وصف حق کو وصف مشتی خاک کو ** وصف حادث کو وصف پاک کو
What relation exists between the attributes of God and those of a handful of earth? What relation exists between the attributes of him who is originated in time and those of the Holy (Eternal) One?
شرح عشق ار من بگویم بر دوام ** صد قیامت بگذرد و آن ناتمام
If I should continue to describe Love, a hundred Resurrections would pass, and it (my description would still be) incomplete;
زانک تاریخ قیامت را حدست ** حد کجا آنجا که وصف ایزدست 2190
For there is a limit to the date of the Resurrection, but what limit can there be where the Divine attributes are (concerned)?
عشق را پانصد پرست و هر پری ** از فراز عرش تا تحت‌الثری
Love hath five hundred wings, and every wing (extends) from above the empyrean to beneath the earth.
زاهد با ترس می‌تازد به پا ** عاشقان پران‌تر از برق و هوا
The timorous ascetic runs on foot; the lovers (of God) fly more quickly than the lightning and the wind.
کی رسند این خایفان در گرد عشق ** که آسمان را فرش سازد درد عشق
How should those fearful ones overtake Love?—for Love's passion makes the (lofty) heaven its carpet—
جز مگر آید عنایتهای ضو ** کز جهان و زین روش آزاد شو
Unless perchance the favours of the (Divine) Light come and say, “Become free from the world and from this wayfaring;
از قش خود وز دش خود باز ره ** که سوی شه یافت آن شهباز ره 2195
Escape from thine own qush and dush, for (only) the royal falcon has found the way to the King.”
این قش و دش هست جبر و اختیار ** از ورای این دو آمد جذب یار
This “qush and dush” is necessity and free-will: the pull of the Beloved (who draws you to Himself) transcends these twain.
چون رسید آن زن به خانه در گشاد ** بانگ در در گوش ایشان در فتاد
When the wife arrived home, she opened the door: the sound of the door fell on their ears.
آن کنیزک جست آشفته ز ساز ** مرد بر جست و در آمد در نماز
The maid jumped up in consternation and disorder; the man jumped up and began to say his prayers.
زن کنیزک را پژولیده بدید ** درهم و آشفته و دنگ و مرید
The wife saw that the maid was dishevelled and confused and excited and witless and unmanageable.
شوی خود را دید قایم در نماز ** در گمان افتاد زن زان اهتزاز 2200
She saw her husband standing up (and engaged) in the ritual prayer: the wife was made suspicious by (all) that agitation.
شوی را برداشت دامن بی‌خطر ** دید آلوده‌ی منی خصیه و ذکر
Periculi nulla ratione habita, mariti laciniam sustulit: testiculos et penem videt semine inquinatos. [She raised (her) husband’s skirt without risk; she saw (his) testicles and penis soiled with sperm.]
از ذکر باقی نطفه می‌چکید ** ران و زانو گشت آلوده و پلید
Seminis quod reliquum erat e pene stillabat: femur genuque inquinata et spurca evaserant. [Remnants of sperm were dripping from (his) penis; his thighs and knees had become soiled and filthy.]
بر سرش زد سیلی و گفت ای مهین ** خصیه‌ی مرد نمازی باشد این
Caput ejus colapho percussit et “O vilissime,” inquit, “num hujusmodi sunt testiculi viri preces sollennes rite facientis? [She slapped at his head and said, “O despicable (one), are these the testicles of a man of prayer?]
لایق ذکر و نمازست این ذکر ** وین چنین ران و زهار پر قذر
Num iste penis cum Dei commemoratione precibusque sollennibus conveniens est? Num femur tale et inguen sordibus plenum. [Is this (soiled) penis worthy of commemoration (of God) and ritual prayer, or these thighs and groin full of filth?]
نامه‌ی پر ظلم و فسق و کفر و کین ** لایقست انصاف ده اندر یمین 2205
Deal equitably (answer fairly): is a scroll (a register of actions) full of injustice and wickedness and unbelief and enmity fit (to be placed) in the right hand?
گر بپرسی گبر را کین آسمان ** آفریده‌ی کیست وین خلق و جهان
If you ask an infidel, “By whom were this heaven and these creatures and this world created?”
گوید او کین آفریده‌ی آن خداست ** که آفرینش بر خدایی‌اش گواست
He will reply that they were created by the Lord to whose Lordship the Creation bears witness.
کفر و فسق و استم بسیار او ** هست لایق با چنین اقرار او
Do his unbelief and great wickedness and wrong-doing fit (properly agree with) such a confession by him?
هست لایق با چنین اقرار راست ** آن فضیحتها و آن کردار کاست
Do those infamous deeds and that vicious conduct go fitly with such a true confession?
فعل او کرده دروغ آن قول را ** تا شد او لایق عذاب هول را 2210
His actions have given the lie to his words, so that he has become fit for (deserving of) the awful torment.